Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Google Adwords Time Machine: Change History in the Grid

We make changes to our Google Adwords account multiple times a day. Multiple people make multiple changes on our Google Adwords account multiple times a day. Did your campaign or ad group take a sharp turn downward? Want to know why CTR dropped? Google now gives us the option to see change history right in the grid.

How Do I See these Changes in the Grid?

Add columns for Budget changes, Bid Changes and many other changes to understand if a change you made to a campaign during a specific date range has caused a change in your campaign.

All Changes - Shows the number of changes that have been made to your campaigns or ad groups during your selected date range.

Budget Changes - Shows the number of budget changes, such as changing daily budget, that have been made during your selected date range. Isolate budget changes on the campaign or ad groups to see if you raised or lowered budgets. Is your campaign capping out? Want to know what the budget was 30 days ago? Now you have the answers thanks to Google Adwords.

What it’s not: This column does not show changes to shared budgets.

Bid Changes - Shows the number of bid changes, such as Max. CPC bid changes, that have been made during your selected date range. Isolate bid changes to see if the performance of a keyword has been influenced by recent changes in bid. Is your click-thru rate down and you want to see if you changed your bid recently?

Keyword Changes - Shows the number of keyword changes, such as adding or deleting keywords, that have been made during your selected date range. Did you forget whether you deleted a keywords or when you added a new keyword? Google can help answer this question.

Status Changes - Shows the number of status changes, such as pausing keywords, that have been made during your selected date range. Did you see a drop in impressions and want to see if you paused a keyword?

Targeting Changes - Shows the number of targeting changes, such as language or country targeting, that have been made during your selected date range. All of a sudden, did you see a spike in traffic and want to see if you added a new country to your targeting?

Ad Changes - Shows the number of ad changes, such as adding or deleting an ad, that have been made during your selected date range. Did Click Thru Rate drop and you want to see if you deleted an ad?

Network Changes - Shows the number of network changes, such as adding Search Partners, that have been made during your selected date range. Did you see a reduction in Conversion Rate and want to see if you turned on or off Search Partners in the past?

When do the Changes Show Up in the Grid?

Changes made yesterday are displayed after 10am (PST) today.

How Far Back Can We See Changes in the Grid?

Changes made before May 19, 2014 are not shown in these columns. Historical changes are kept for 2 years in the traditional Google Adwords Change History log.

Bottom Line

Now you have a quick and easy way to isolate changes to campaigns and ad groups to see if a change you made during a specific period of time influenced your PPC results.